CoastAdapt (www.coastadapt.org) is nearing completion of the first phase of the project which is designed to gather information about knowledge and perceptions of present and future impacts of changing climates from the pilot study sites situated in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, HammerfestMunicipality in northern Norway, TraleeBay to the west of Ireland, and southern Iceland.

This transnational project, supported by the Northern Periphery Programme, involves local coastal communities in a bottom-up approach to the development of adaptive response and preparedness to the impacts of climate change.

The last in the first series of workshops under Phase 1, and discussions with Icelandic agencies such as the Maritime Administration and Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, will take place during the end of August. The aim will be for project partners to learn from experience gained in relation to natural hazards presented by volcanic activity and flooding, and how this experience can be used by coastal communities in the other study sites in terms of adapting to severe weather events and emergency planning.